Here begins (as an explanation of why they cannot) the series of stories called the Book of Lost Tales.

In this passage (16) Жlfwine becomes more firmly rooted in English history: he is apparently a man of eleventh-century Wessex—but as in (15) he is of ‘the kin of Ing’. The capital of the Elves of Tol Eressлa is not Kortirion but Rфs, a name now used in a quite different application from that in citation (5), where it was a promontory of the Great Lands.

I have been unable to find any trace of the process whereby the name Lъthien came to be so differently applied afterwards (Lъthien Tinъviel). Another note of this period explains the name quite otherwise: ‘Lъthien or Lъsion was son of Telumaith (Telumektar). Жlfwine loved the sign of Orion, and made the sign, hence the fairies called him Lъthien (Wanderer).’ There is no other mention of Жlfwine’s peculiar association with Orion nor of this interpretation of the name Lъthien; and this seems to be a development that my father did not pursue.

It is convenient to give here the opening passage from the second Scheme for the Lost Tales, referred to above; this plainly belongs to the same time as the rest of these ‘Жlfwine’ notes, when the Tales had been written so far as they ever went within their first framework.

(17) Жlfwine awakens upon a sandy beach. He listens to the sea, which is far out. The tide is low and has left him.

Жlfwine meets the Elves of Rфs; finds they speak the speech of the English, beside their own sweet tongue. Why they do so—the dwelling of Elves in Luthany and their faring thence and back. They clothe him and feed him, and he sets forth to walk along the island’s flowery ways.

The scheme goes on to say that on a summer evening Жlfwine came to Kortirion, and thus differs from (16), where he goes to ‘Rфs their capital’, in which he finds the Cottage of Lost Play. The name Rфs seems to be used here in yet another sense—possibly a name for Tol Eressлa.

(18) He is sped to Жlfhвm (Elfhome) Eldos where Lindo and Vairл tell him many things: of the making and ancient fashion of the world: of the Gods: of the Elves of Valinor: of Lost Elves and Men: of the Travail of the Gnomes: of Eдrendel: of the Faring Forth and the Loss of Valinor: of the disaster of the Faring Forth and the war with evil Men. The retreat to Luthany where Ingwл was king. Of the home-thirst of the Elves and how the greater number sought back to Valinor. The loss of Elwing. How a new home was made by the Solosimpi and others in Tol Eressлa. How the Elves continually sadly leave the world and fare thither.

For the interpretation of this passage it is essential to realise (the key indeed to the understanding of this projected history) that ‘the Faring Forth’ does not here refer to the Faring Forth in the sense in which it has been used hitherto—that from Tol Eressлa for the Rekindling of the Magic Sun, which ended in ruin, but to the March of the Elves of Kфr and the ‘Loss of Valinor’ that the March incurred (see pp. 253, 257, 280). It is not indeed clear why it is here called a ‘disaster’: but this is evidently to be associated with ‘the war with evil Men’, and war between Elves and Men at the time of the March from Kфr is referred to in citations (1) and (3).

In ‘the Eriol story’ it is explicit that after the March from Kфr the Elves departed from the Great Lands to Tol Eressлa; here on the other hand ‘the war with evil Men’ is followed by ‘the retreat to Luthany where Ingwл was king’. The (partial) departure to Tol Eressлa is from Luthany; the loss of Elwing seems to take place on one of these voyages. As will be seen, the ‘Faring Forth’ of ‘the Eriol story’ has disappeared as an event of Elvish history, and is only mentioned as a prophecy and a hope.

Schematically the essential divergence of the two narrative structures can be shown thus:

(Eriol story)

(Жlfwine story)

March of the Elves of Kфr to the Great Lands

March of the Elves of Kфr to the Great Lands (called ‘the Faring Forth’)

War with Men in the Great Lands

War with Men in the Great Lands

Retreat of the Elves to Tol Eressлa (loss of Elwing)

Retreat of the Elves to Luthany (> England) ruled by Ingwл

Departure of many Elves to Tol Eressлa (loss of Elwing)

Eriol sails from the East (North Sea region) to Tol Eressлa

Жlfwine sails from England to Tol Eressлa

The Faring Forth, drawing of Tol Eressлa to the Great Lands; ultimately Tol Eressлa > England

This is of course by no means a full statement of the Жlfwine story, and is merely set out to indicate the radical difference of structure. Lacking from it is the history of Luthany, which emerges from the passages that now follow.

(19) Luthany means ‘friendship’, Lъthien ‘friend’. Luthany the only land where Men and Elves once dwelt an age in peace and love.

How for a while after the coming of the sons of Ing the Elves throve again and ceased to fare away to Tol Eressлa.

How Old English became the sole mortal language which an Elf will speak to a mortal that knows no Elfin.

(20) Жlfwine of England (whose father and mother were slain by the fierce Men of the Sea who knew not the Elves) was a great lover of the Elves, especially of the shoreland Elves that lingered in the land. He seeks for Tol Eressлa whither the fairies are said to have retired.

He reaches it. The fairies call him Lъthien. He learns of the making of the world,…….of Gods and Elves, of Elves and Men, down to the departure to Tol Eressлa.

How the Faring Forth came to nought, and the fairies took refuge in Albion or Luthany (the Isle of Friendship).

Seven invasions.

Of the coming of Men to Luthany, how each race quarrelled, and the fairies faded, until [?the most] set sail, after the coming of the Rъmhoth, for the West. Why the Men of the seventh invasion, the Ingwaiwar, are more friendly.

Ingwл and Eдrendel who dwelt in Luthany before it was an isle and was [sic] driven east by Ossл to found the Ingwaiwar.

(21) All the descendants of Ing were well disposed to Elves; hence the remaining Elves of Luthany spoke to [?them] in the ancient tongue of the English, and since some have fared…..to Tol Eressлa that tongue is there understood, and all who wish to speak to the Elves, if they know not and have no means of learning Elfin speeches, must converse in the ancient tongue of the English.

In (20) the term ‘Faring Forth’ must again be used as it is in (18), of the March from Kфr. There it was called a ‘disaster’ (see p. 303), and here it is said that it ‘came to nought’: it must be admitted that it is hard to see how that can be said, if it led to the binding of Melko and the release of the enslaved Noldoli (see (1) and (3)).

Also in (20) is the first appearance of the idea of the Seven Invasions of Luthany. One of these was that of the Rъmhoth (mentioned also in (14)) or Romans; and the seventh was that of the Ingwaiwar, who were not hostile to the Elves.

Here something must be said of the name Ing (Ingwл, Ingwaiar) in these passages. As with the introduction of Hengest and Horsa, the association of the mythology with ancient English legend is manifest. But it would serve no purpose, I believe, to enter here into the obscure and speculative scholarship of English and Scandinavian origins: the Roman writers’ term Inguaeones for the Baltic maritime peoples from whom the English came; the name Ingwine (interpretable either as Ing-wine ‘the friends of Ing’ or as containing the same Ingw- seen in Inguaeones); or the mysterious personage Ing who appears in the Old English Runic Poem: